Ust-Nera (; ) is an urban locality (an

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

) and the

administrative center An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...

Oymyakonsky District Oymyakonsky District (; , ''Öymököön uluuha'', ) is an administrativeConstitution of the Sakha Republic and municipalLaw #172-Z #351-III district ( raion, or ''ulus''), one of the thirty-four in the Sakha Republic, Russia. It is located in th ...

Yakutia Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Located in one of the coldest permanently inhabited regions on Earth, Ust-Nera is approximately northeast of the republic's capital,

Yakutsk Yakutsk ( ) is the capital and largest city of Sakha, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the ...

. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 6,463.

Geography

Ust-Nera is located at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

of the Nera and

Indigirka River The Indigirka (; ) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana to the west and the Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its basin is . History The isolated village of Russkoye Ustye, located on the delta of the Indigi ...

s, from which it takes its name (the ''ust-'' part means ''river mouth'' in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

). Ust-Nera is located about north of the '' selo'' of

Oymyakon Oymyakon is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, rural locality (a ''village#Russia, selo'') in Oymyakonsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located in the Yana-Oymyakon Highlands, along the Indigirka River, northwest of Tomtor, Oy ...

, which is one of two places in the Sakha Republic (the other being Verkhoyansk) that lays claim to being the northern

Pole of Cold Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

, the coldest location in the northern hemisphere. The Tas-Kystabyt, Silyap Range and the Nera Plateau are located in the district.

Climate

Ust-Nera has an extremely cold

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Dwd)'' with short, mild, wet summers with chilly nights, and severely cold, dry winters.

History

Ust-Nera was founded in 1937 in conjunction with gold mining and exploration in the Indigirka and

Kolyma Kolyma (, ) or Kolyma Krai () is a historical region in the Russian Far East that includes the basin of Kolyma River and the northern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma Mountains (the watershed of the two). It is bounded to ...

regions. In the

Soviet era The history of the Soviet Union (USSR) (1922–91) began with the ideals of the Russian Bolshevik Revolution and ended in dissolution amidst economic collapse and political disintegration. Established in 1922 following the Russian Civil War, ...

, it served as a base for forced labor camps of the

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

Urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

status was granted to Ust-Nera in 1950.''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic''

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, the

of Ust-NeraAccording to Article 7 of the Law #77-I, lower-level administrative divisions with the status of a settlement have their administrative centers in an inhabited locality with the status of an urban-type settlement. According to the ''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic'', Ust-Nera is the administrative center of the Settlement of Ust-Nera. serves as the

. As an administrative division, it is incorporated within Oymyakonsky District as the Settlement of Ust-Nera. As a municipal division, the Settlement of Ust-Nera is incorporated within Oymyakonsky Municipal District as Ust-Nera Urban Settlement.

Economy

Gold mining is the main occupation. The

Kolyma Highway The R504 Kolyma Highway (, ''Federal'naya Avtomobil'naya Doroga «Kolyma»,'' "Federal Automobile Highway 'Kolyma'"), part of the M56 route, is a road through the Russian Far East. It connects Magadan with the town of Nizhny Bestyakh, located ...

was extended northwest to Ust-Nera in 1937; this section is now the main route between

and

Magadan Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a Port of Magadan, port types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Magadan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula by the ...

. The Ust-Nera Airport is serving air traffic. River traffic on the Indigirka is limited by the rapids downstream.

Culture

There is a small museum in Ust-Nera.

References

Notes

Sources

*Official website of the Sakha Republic. ''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic''
Oymyakonsky District
* * {{Use mdy dates, date=March 2013 Urban-type settlements in the Sakha Republic Indigirka basin